Digital TV CEE Award winners revealed

Warsaw’s Belvedere restaurant was the scene for the inaugural Digital TV CEE Awards yesterday evening, hosted by DTVE editor Stuart Thomson and independent consultant Alexander Oudendijk.

The Industry Leader Award went to Toomas Tiivel, group chief commercial officer of Starman. East Capital Explorer-backed Starman has emerged as a key consolidator in the cable and pay TV business in the Baltic region, following its acquisition of Cgates and Kava in Lithuania.

Maciej Maciejowski, board member responsible for business development at TVN, was given the Digital Innovator of the Year Award, in recognition for his role in furthering the Polish broadcaster’s digital presence, including the launch and development of TVN Player and online network Veedo.pl.

Arpad Jordan, CTO for Liberty Global in Central and Eastern Europe, was presented with the Technology Leader award in recognition of his work in bringing cloud-based advanced TV to legacy set-tops in Hungary, including the launch of YouTube.

Vana Henriksen, group communications director at United Group was given the Marketer of the Year award for the successful management of five brands across disparate territories and building a reputation for attractive content and fast broadband.

Content Executive of the Year winner HBO’s EVP of original programming and production Antony Root was recognised for multiple contributions to creating original premium content across CEE, most recently Wataha in Poland.

The Awards programme was created to recognise some of the key individuals behind original content, distribution and technology initiatives and market-leading strategic decisions over the last year.